Also finished Quantum Leap

As well as The Magicians I finished my first full run of Quantum Leap. Again what a rush?

This is really a series you probably have to watch more then once to get the full picture of what was going on, and even then you will probably find new things that you never thought of or even saw before. I don't mind that and sometime in the future I will do a rewatch of the series. I am so glad I didn't skip out like I did the first time around when I had another version of the series boxset.

There are some brilliant episodes, and it's a very emotional ride through points of history as Sam Beckett gets the holes in his swiss cheese memory plugged over time. I can't say I have any actual favourite episodes. He played lots of different men in different periods of history and lots of women in that same period of history within his lifetime. I love that they actually did go there and do the whole gender swap thing when Sam took the place of a woman. At least they didn't cop out on that during the show. "Future Boy" was a nice episode too with a nice family theme but love the easter egg of that time machine the actor made almost working, just for a split second it almost worked and there was a similar blue glow like the leaping effect.

Love this series 8/10 again

 

Did he ever get home or did they leave that one hanging?

 

I still don't get what actually leaps, they say there are people in the waiting room when Sam leaps but are they actually the people he swaps places with or something else because back in the past they see the person who he has leaped into. So I wish they had explained that detail a bit better.

 

Many aspects are best left unexplained. They would just get in the way of the story.

 

Sam does.

Yes.

 

So it's like schrodingers cat then There but not there Sam but not Sam.

Yeah best not to think about it because it does get in the way of the story but I did wonder with the final episode Sam sees all those other leapers in the bar does that mean his machine wasn't that unique or did God put the idea into his head to make the machine because it's implied the Bartender /GTFW (God Time Fate Whatever) pulled him off course on the test run. Maybe this God person put the idea into people's head to build this machine and start leaping.

 

It changes over the series. Initially it seems that Sam's mind is in their body, and vice versa, later Sam's body is time travelling, hence he can walk despite leaping into a legless amputee. Trying to work out The Leap Home gives a lot of headaches...
The early version makes better sense, but the later one is onscreen clear, so...

 

And it's probably best not to think about details too much lol.

 

Yep, in The Leap Home Sam is maybe in Al's body and Al is in the body of the guy from 1945, who is nowhere... headache time!

 

6/10 for me. It's way too syrupy for me at times, but the standout episodes were nothing less than terrific, and genuinely bold for the era. Also, season 5 should have been a lot better...

Especially once they get to the evil leaper stories, season 5 feels like a series of cheap ploys for ratings -- when they're not just jumping the shark, they're baiting it. After 4 seasons of general consistency*, now he can do all sorts of different things that don't begin to make sense.

If season 5's bizarre ideas alone isn't reminiscent of how the network that produced Sliders decided to fingerfudged its third season in a quest for EZ-Ratings (and ruining that show in the process, too), there's more and it gets better: That "Sam Becket never made it home" finale card with typo ranks up there with The Simpson's Poochie the Dog too**...




* Despite leaping into the amputee and wandering around the place... that pales compared to what other season 5 stories now do... leaping with another person (that must put the evil leaper organization's*** computer into haywire or something), leaping through his genetic line (the civil war episode), etc...

** Wow... just, wow...


*** Not making the name up. They really are canonically called "The Evil Leapers".

 

Yeah season 5 is a bit rough

 

There is this alternate ending for the final episode that likely would have been used had the show not been cancelled.

 

There was also an earlier episode where Sam leaped in as a blind concert pianist, yet he himself could still see. That would also tend to put to rest the idea that only his mind was leaping.

Also, when Sam is the pregnant woman, Al says something about "you can't have a baby, it's your body, not hers".

 

IIRC, and it's a few years since I rewatched, in the pianist episode doesn't Al put a (holographic) score in front of Sam, so he can see it as he sees Al? Direct to his mind.
Checking up the baby episode is mid way through season three, so not far off Leap Home. But Blind Faith is earli in season two.

 

No, I don't think that ever happened.

When Sam first leaps in, he can see, but Al warns him to act like he's still blind so as to perpetuate the illusion. Later in the episode a camera goes off in Sam's face and the flash temporarily blinds him.

In any case, Sam is an expert musician so he never would have needed holographic assistance to play the piano.

 

IIRC Al tells him he's an accomplished pianist, but he still needs a score for a piece he doesn't know. But now recall him reading a box when he's supposed to be blind.

 

Uh, there is still some ambiguity about it was his body that leaped? I thought it was always taken for granted. Obviously they mentioned in the actual show only when it was pertinent to the plot (like when he took the place of a pregnant woman).

Edit: and probably (correct me if I'm wrong) 9 times on 10 he took the place of an adult not-disabled man, so it wasn't really relevant whose body was.

 

He may have been a brilliant physicist and accomplished pianist but he really sucked at pretending to be whoever he leapt into. A lot of the show was him talking to thin air in public.

 

Yeah just saw the pregnant woman episode..... So yeah like that happened.
But having said that he leapt into several women over the series and also became a chimpanzee.